Nuclear physics at the SCRIT electron scattering facility

The SCRIT electron scattering facility is under construction at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory. This is the world's first facility dedicated to the study of the structure of short-lived nuclei by electron scattering, which has been a long-standing dream for nuclear physics. A novel Self-Confining RI Target (SCRIT) technique makes this challenging research possible. A series of test experiments using stable nuclei performed at this partially completed facility show that the collision luminosity between electron beam and target nucleus reaches 10²⁷ cm^-2 s^-1, which is required for an elastic electron scattering measurement to determine the charge density distribution of the target nucleus. The first electron scattering for unstable Sn isotopes will take place in the year 2014. Nuclear Physics at the SCRIT Electron Scattering Facility